Liberal Talk Station Takes Flight, but Stays Under Radar

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After nearly three months of broadcasting, the liberal talk-radio station KTLK-AM (1150) better known by its Air America affiliation still doesn’t register on local radio ratings.


But Station Manager John Quinlan has his own ratings system. More than 1,000 listeners have contacted the station by phone, e-mail or letter since it went on the air in January.


“That’s a pretty significant number of contacts because we haven’t asked for them,” Quinlan said. “These people sought us out on their own, called information or researched the Web.”


Progressive talk, embodied by the upstart Air America Radio network, is considered one of the nation’s fastest-growing formats.


Air America has 53 affiliate stations, 40 of which have switched over in the past six months. Signature stars include comics-turned-political commentators Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo. The network’s newest celebrity is Jerry Springer, who hosts a political talk show out of Cincinnati, though the program is not currently airing in L.A.


KTLK, owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., changed over from the sports talk format (under the call letters KXTA) in January, after Air America got off to a false start in Los Angeles last year.


Despite limited marketing resources, and competition from 104 other stations in the market, Quinlan said local advertisers are starting to contact the station though he declined to release numbers.


Susan Love, vice president of sales and marketing with Jones MediaAmerica, which handles Air America’s national ad sales, called the L.A. market “crucial” to the network’s strategy.



Financial questions


A year ago, KBLA-AM (1580) was one of the six stations selected to launch the liberal talk format. But two weeks later, the Santa Monica station dropped the network over a billing dispute. When the Chicago affiliate also kicked the network off its air, Air America’s financial stability came into question.


Air America burned through a couple of chief executives due to financial and management difficulties, but over the past six months it seems to have regained its footing. Its initial $20 million barely carried the network through last year, but it was able to raise an additional $19 million in November.


Air America reached about 2.2 million listeners in the fall of 2004, up from 1.7 million in spring of last year, according to Jones MediaAmerica research. Since then, Love said, Air America has landed stations in Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles.


“As you compare it to what’s available in the U.S. from a radio standpoint, it’s not a significant share,” said Mary Beth Garber, president of the Southern California Broadcasters Association. “But two million people is a nice chunk of people.” Satellite radio, by contrast, has about 4.5 million subscribers.


Love pointed out that Air America started out in 15 of the 20 largest markets, unlike the typical new-format trajectory of launching in small markets and working toward larger ones.


The San Diego affiliate, KLSD-AM, also a Clear Channel station, switched to progressive talk in August with Air America programming and moved from a 1.6 percent audience share to 2.6 percent. Seattle’s KPTK-AM started in October with a 0.3 percent share and reached 1.9 percent by January. San Francisco’s KQKE-AM launched in September, and though data was not available for October, the station went from a 0.6 percent rating in November to a 1.6 percent by January.


The first real indication of its performance in L.A. will be available this month when Arbitron Co. publishes its ratings quarterly. The winter books, however, will reflect only two months of KTLK’s nascent existence; the first full book won’t be out until this summer.


KTLK takes 90 percent of its programming from Air America, and the rest come from other contributors, such as North Dakota talk show host Ed Schultz, whose show has been inundated with calls from L.A. listeners in the past two months, according to program director Don Martin. “They were concerned it was sounding too much like it was becoming an L.A. radio show,” he said.


Earlier this month, KTLK aired locally produced shows for the first time, hosted by left-leaning writer Johnny Wendell and Steve Young, political editor of National Lampoon.


The local lineup also includes a travel show hosted by Peter Greenberg, travel editor for NBC’s “Today” show and chief travel correspondent for Travel Channel.


“My goal for the radio station is to create a talk station that happens to have some liberal talk shows,” Quinlan said. “At some point I want this station to have its own identity that is not defined by Air America.”

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